Wednesday, February 25, 2015

#BookReview : When I Was 25: The Leaders Look Back by Shaili Chopra

On the jacket:

What do you dream about when you envisage your future? In When I Was 25, Shaili Chopra traces the youth of eminent personalities like Adi Godrej, K.P. Singh, P. Chidambaram and Dimple Kapadia. These successful people open up about the challenges they faced and the choices they made to reach where they are today. They also part with invaluable advice to the young, based on what they have learned in their careers. Honest and refreshing, this book will inspire you and point you to the path of greater glory.

Review:

When I Was 25 is a collection of flashbacks of lives of thirteen leaders, looking back in their lives. We have Uday Shankar talking about the his foray into journalism in his early twenties, Shashi Tharoor about joining the UN at an early age, Dimple Kapadia about dealing with a broken marriage and bringing up two small children, and Rajdeep Sardesai talking about his early days as a journalist. We also read about Adi Godrej, Sadhguru, Zia Mody, P Chidambaram, K P Singh, Jai Panda, Kalpana Morparia, Vikram Talwar and Sandeep Khosla.

While I loved reading about Shashi Tharoor the most, I was left wondering why I was reading about Dimple Kapadia - couldn't see her as a leader. Sardesai's chapter seemed more like 'how he was born with a silver spoon' initially and only later does it go on to throw more light on to his struggles and the ladder of his success.

A very mixed combination of leaders, interesting yet in few chapters I wished there was more.

Rating: ***/5

[This review is for Random House India. The opinions are strictly my own and not been written under any obligation.]